Sermon and Worship Resources

"Suppose you were on a nonstop flight to Asia,” says the motivational speaker, “and heard this announcement: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re traveling west across the Pacific Ocean. In a few hours, you will be able to look down and see land. When that happens, we are going to start looking for a big city with an airport. If we find one before our fuel runs out, we will land. Then we will figure out where we are and decide where we want to go next. In the meantime folks, just sit back and relax and enjoy your trip.’

“Would you have a relaxed flight? Wouldn’t it be better if somebody had planned ahead?” (1)

It has been said that the average American spends more time planning their vacation than they do planning their life.

Jesus certainly believed we should have a plan for our lives. On one occasion he told his disciples:

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

Jesus is asking us to reflect on our lives and not simply react to our lives.

There was a tragic story that came out of Portland Oregon back in 2004. Dianne, a 56‑year‑old bus driver with many years of experience, pulled into the Sunset Transit Center shortly before noon. She was running six minutes late, and was eager to use the bathroom.

After waiting impatiently for her passengers to disembark, Dianne hurried off the bus, leaving the engine in gear and running, with no parking brake engaged. She walked around to the front of the bus and reached in the driver’s window to pull the lever that closed the door.

The bus is equipped with automatic brakes that keep it from moving as long as the doors are open. Once the doors shut, the brakes release after a one‑and‑a‑half‑second delay.

As Dianne passed in front of the bus again, she suddenly found the 15‑ton bus creeping slowly toward her. She could have jumped out of the way. In fact, she could have ambled out of the way. Instead, witnesses watched her push against the bus with her arms outstretched, in an effort to stop it.

The mass of a bus is more than 200 times the mass of an adult woman. You do the math. The bus did indeed stop, eventually, due to circumstances other than Dianne’s efforts.

Paramedics arrived within minutes to find Dianne dead beneath the bus. An investigation blamed the accident on “operator error.” (2)

Now, if Dianne had stopped and thought it through, she would have known she could not stop this 15-ton bus with her own strength. The problem was she didn’t think. She simply reacted to the situation. This is the difference between reflecting and reacting.

Many people live this way. They do not plan their lives. They do not reflect on their purpose and the means they are taking to achieve that purpose. They simply react to events as they unfold. Living on the edge is what they might call it. For some of them, it is the edge of disaster. Failing to plan, the old adage goes, is planning to fail. And it’s true whether we are talking about starting a business or finishing a life.

There are probably a couple of reasons why some people refuse to plan. ONE IS A FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS. You probably have heard that cry of despair that goes like this: “If you want to make God laugh, show him your calendar.” That is, you’ve made plans and then, Whack!, out of the blue an event occurs--a crisis with your health, or the loss of a job, or a divorce or a problem with one of your kids--and all your well-made plans are knocked askew. It happens to us all.

It’s like the story of two explorers who were on a jungle safari when suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them.

“Keep calm,” the first explorer whispered. “Remember what we read in that book on wild animals? If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run.”

“Sure,” replied his companion. “You’ve read the book, and I’ve read the book. But has the lion read the book?”

That’s how some of us feel about long-term planning. Why make plans that you probably will not be able to see through to fruition? And it’s true that life does have a way of knocking us off course. That is why part of our planning and preparation should take into consideration life crises, for surely they will come.

A SECOND REASON MANY OF US FAIL TO PLAN IS THAT WE SIMPLY DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE. That is, if we plan for such things as financial security, marital happiness, good health, and a meaningful legacy to our community--we might have to change some of our present habits. And we do not like to change.

I heard about a fellow back in the days when radio was the dominant medium who bought a radio, tuned it to WSM in Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry, and then pulled off the knobs. He knew what he liked. As far as he was concerned, nothing was going to come along that he would like better. So, he pulled off the knobs so the radio could not be changed.

If that is your attitude, you don’t want to hear Jesus’ words about sitting down before you build a tower or before you engage an enemy because planning for the future implies changes in how we live in the present. I trust that few of us are that foolish, however. We would like to make our lives count for something. We would like to fulfill our dreams, and to believe that our best days lie ahead. So, where do we begin?

Let’s begin with the end in mind. That’s what Stephen Covey encouraged us to do a few years back with his best-selling book, THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. When we get to the end of our life, will we do so with a lot of regrets? What will our friends say about us? Our family? Will we have the resources to meet the challenges of our final years, not only financial resources, but emotional resources, relational resources, spiritual resources?

There is a little book titled LIFEFOCUS by Jerry Foster that introduces us to a concept that I hope you will take seriously. He calls it LIFEWEALTH. Lifewealth refers to each of the important areas of our life--our finances, our health, our relationships, our spiritual life. These are our assets. All four are necessary to our well-being.

“How do you want your life to end?” asks Jerry Foster, “With your final breath do you want to utter, ‘What a satisfying, fulfilling, and meaningful life I have lived’? Do you desire your relationship with your spouse and children to grow closer and stronger right to the very end? Do you want to leave a rich legacy of material and nonmaterial treasures for your heirs? Do you hope that friends and coworkers who attend your memorial service are filled with gratitude for your contribution to their lives?”

If you answer in the positive to each of these questions, then you need a plan for bringing these to fruition. Foster suggests a very practical plan which he calls “the Vector Principle.”

Some of you know about vectors. For those of us who don’t, a practical application of vectors will help us. Let’s suppose we are in an airplane, flying to Europe. But somehow right at the beginning of our flight, we are knocked off course just a few degrees. As we keep flying, that little discrepancy in our direction is amplified over time and distance. And so we don’t arrive in Europe at all. We arrive somewhere in North Africa. Just a few degrees at our point of origin produces a large variation in our final destination. That, in essence, is the vector principle. Small changes at one point in your life produce major, life-affecting results later in life.

Let’s suppose that a person decides at age 35 to jog two miles every day, and she keeps this up day after day. Can you see that this small change in this person’s lifestyle might have major ramifications for her health 35 years later? A small change, but with major consequences. The same might be said for taking up walking two miles every day at age 60.

Can you see that putting $100 every month into a mutual fund when you are 35 can produce significant income when you reach retirement age? A small change, but the rewards can be significant. Some of us are far beyond 35, but it is never too late to begin sound financial habits.

What might happen if you began today finding a way daily to pay more attention to your spouse or your children or a friend? Might it not strengthen your relationship in such a way that you will be able to count on each other’s love and loyalty right until the end of life?

And then there’s our relationship with God. What would it mean for your spiritual life if you began spending a little time each day in God’s presence, listening for God’s guidance in how you should lead your life and committing yourself daily, unconditionally to walking in the way God would have you go?

The vector principle. Small, doable changes at one point in your life which produce major, life-affecting results later in your life. As someone has noted, the mighty Mississippi begins with the bubbling of a little spring somewhere in Minnesota.

We’re told that vast areas of Holland have been covered by floods that began with a break in the dikes no larger than your hand. You don’t have to have a blinding, Damascus Road-type experience to make your life more pleasing to God and more satisfying to yourself and to those you love. Sometimes all it takes is a small change in your daily routine.

Let me challenge you this day to begin making some small deposits in your “LifeWealth” account. Take each of these four areas of your life--your finances, your health, your relationships, especially your relationship with your spouse or your children, and your relationship with God. What is one thing you can do to improve each of these areas of your life? This is not a frivolous thing. This could be the most important day of your life if you would make a few small changes that would change your final life destination just a few small degrees.

Steve Reeves tells the story of a woman who underwent a very delicate form of brain surgery. In removing the tumor, the doctors were concerned that the slightest miscue could cause the loss of either her memory or her eyesight. So they asked the woman to choose which side of the brain tissue they’d enter with their scalpels. In other words, if she had to lose one of those senses, which would she prefer to lose? Wisely, she said, “Let me think about it overnight, and I’ll tell you tomorrow which sense is more important to me.”

The next day she told the doctors, “If I had to lose either memory or sight, I would prefer to lose my memory.”

When asked how she arrived at her decision, she calmly replied, “I’d rather see where I’m going than remember where I’ve been.” (3)

I want you to see where you’re going and to make the changes required to get there. That’s God’s will for you.

Jesus was warning his followers to carefully consider the cost of discipleship. But his words also carry a very practical message about living. Think about your life. Where are you headed? What will it take to get you to where you want to be and where God wants you to be? Start today making the changes that are necessary to take you where you want to go.

1. Executive Speechwriters Newsletter

2. 2004 Darwin Award Nominee, http://www.darwinawards.com/.

3. Dave Stone, Keeping Your Head above Water (Loveland: Group Publishing, 2002), p. 122.

Dynamic Preaching, Third Quarter Sermons 2007, by King Duncan